News media fight subpoena of Lindh interviewer
By The Associated Press
07.12.02
(Editor's note: On July 15, John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty to two charges, rendering subpoena efforts against CNN free-lancer Robert Pelton moot. On July 12, before Lindh's plea, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had ruled that Pelton could not avoid a subpoena to testify. Ellis said journalists enjoy no First Amendment privilege against testifying except in instances involving protection of confidential sources or harassment.)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Several news organizations are opposing efforts by American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh to subpoena the free-lance reporter who interviewed him in Afghanistan.
Lindh's lawyers have subpoenaed Robert Pelton, a free-lancer working for CNN who interviewed Lindh in December at a prison hospital in Sheberghan, Afghanistan.
Lindh's lawyers contend that Pelton was essentially acting as an agent of the U.S. government during the interview, and therefore Lindh should have been read his Miranda rights.
Pelton has already denied acting as a U.S. agent, and is seeking to quash the subpoena. A federal judge is to hear the issue today.
On July 10, a group of media organizations, including CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, Tribune Co., The New York Times and The Washington Post, filed a brief in U.S. District Court supporting Pelton's effort to quash the subpoena.
The suggestion by Lindh's attorneys that Pelton was acting in concert with the U.S. government "threatens to endanger the physical safety of American war correspondents throughout the world" by fueling suspicions in foreign countries about the motives of U.S. journalists, according to the friend-of-the-court brief.
"We can't afford to have journalists being perceived as agents," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which joined in the brief. "It would be like putting a bull's-eye on the backs of journalists."
The brief says the notion that Pelton was acting as a U.S. agent is "factually preposterous."
Prosecutors also rejected the idea that Pelton was acting as a U.S. agent and said Lindh's lawyers had no hope of proving such a connection, given that both Pelton and the U.S. government deny the charge.
Lindh is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. citizens, contributing services to the Taliban and al-Qaida and using weapons in crimes of violence. He could face life in prison if convicted.
The trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 26. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 15 on Lindh's request to suppress a series of statements he made to investigators, as well as the Pelton interview.
In the CNN interview, Lindh said his "heart became attached to the (Taliban) movement. I wanted to help them one way or another."